David Beckham has found himself embroiled in a salmon scandal after jetting to Norway for a fishing trip. 

The football star’s trip to the fjords has infuriated locals who claim he has been given special treatment for an activity that is usually banned. 

Last week, the former footballer was filmed fishing in a river that is normally subject to strict restrictions, The Times has reported. 

The Laerdal in southwest Norway, where a local man says Beckham was spotted, 

is also known as the ‘queen of salmon rivers’, because it is often visited by the country’s king and queen. 

Norwegians, however, have recently been subjected to strict restrictions on salmon fishing in an effort to rescue declining fish stocks. 

This summer, the government’s environment agency banned fishing on the Laerdal and 33 other rivers after a survey revealed salmon numbers had halved. 

The decline is thought to be caused in part by global warming and also parasites spreading from fish farms. 

Beckham’s trip has sparked criticism of the local authorities and has even led to allegations that it may have used an expensive loophole in the regulations. 

Despite the ban, however, there is one exception to the rule – a practice known as (stock fishing). 

This is where the salmon, once caught, are transported to a hatchery where their roe are collected for artificial insemination. 

Such expeditions require donations of up to 1.4 million kroner (about £100,000) to the organisations in charge of the hatcheries, according to the Norwegian newspaper Bergens Tidende. 

It has also been reported that Liv Signe Navarsete, the governor of the surrounding county, decided to let the trip go ahead, going against the decision of her staff. 

The 65-year-old politician has said that when she said the trip could go ahead she did not know that the former England captain would be taking part in it. 

She added that she intervened this time because a previous decision to cancel the trip had its basis in an ‘incomplete research report’. 

However, lawyer and keen angler Rune Svoren, has accused the rules of bent after he was prevented from fishing on the Laerdal. 

He said the fishing rights for the river were essentially being sold by the owners through the back door.  

There is no suggestion that Beckham has done anything wrong and a spokesperson for the footballer told the Times that although he had not been involved in organising the trip, it was done in accordance with the regulations. 

The row comes following another stir in the Norwegian press a week ago, when one broadcaster showed footage of the 49-year-old fishing in a stretch of water near the Sognefjord, the country’s longest fjord.

Beckham has recently developed an interest in angling and has travelled to the salmon rivers in Iceland with film-maker Guy Ritchie.

He has also taken his son Brooklyn out on a boat in Weymouth, Dorset to catch John Dory. 

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Source: New York Post